A series of charts released by Joint Economic Committee Ranking Member Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) this week point to decades of faltering retirement security, stagnant wages and rising income inequality in the U.S. economy.
There are twelve charts in all, focusing on everything from rising CEO pay and the wealth of the top 1 percent, to the dropping value of the minimum wage and women’s growth into the labor force.
In essence, the reports says long-term trends in the country have not been favoring sound economic policy. In fact, the charts warn economic security is being threatened. At the same time they noted economic progress under the administration of President Barack Obama, the charts also note that long-term economic factors have been decidedly against many citizens.
“Today, many hardworking Americans are facing much greater economic insecurity and pressures than the previous generation,” Maloney said. “Hourly wages are no higher than they were 40 years ago, pensions are disappearing and college costs are rising. Our job as policymakers is to focus like a laser on addressing the overarching challenge of economic instability facing American families.”
While hourly wages have gone up in recent years, and unemployment has dropped dramatically since 2010 and the country’s recovery from the Great Recession, the reports note that such gains have been outpaced and overshadowed by other, more harmful economic trends, including a skewed ratio of worker to CEO compensation.